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Michigan Asbestos Areas

Michigan Asbestos Areas
Michigan Asbestos Areas

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For decades asbestos was the industrial insulation of choice, especially in plants that used heat in the production process. Factory production lines had components that were coated with asbestos in areas where extreme heat could impact workers; some of the installations where this practice was prominent include steel mills, auto plants, power plants, paper mills, oil refineries, chemical plants and the operating machinery in railroad locomotives and early diesels.

Asbestos was also used in home environments as insulation and in roofing, flooring, ceiling tiles, wallboard and caulking materials. Asbestos is not only excellent insulation, it is resistant to fire, to acid burns and to other caustic substances. It is flexible, easy to use and plentiful. Unfortunately asbestos also a health hazard and a carcinogen.

Millions of Americans were exposed to asbestos in the workplace through the 1980s, when it was universally declared to be a hazard. Production of new asbestos products ceased and removal of hazardous asbestos from existing structures began.
Asbestos, A Serious Problem for Michigan

Michigan may have more of those structures per capita than almost any other state. The auto plants and the subsidiary industries such as the spark plug plants, Fisher body plants, the axle and wheel and engine production facilities all had asbestos components throughout the factories. Bethlehem Steel, Great Lakes Steel, all of the open hearth and Bessemer steel plants used asbestos in their equipment and provided asbestos clothing as protection for their workers.

The most recent discovery of a large-scale asbestos contaminant has been the vermiculite mine operated by W.R. Grace in Libby, Montana. Vermiculite ore is also used to make asbestos and millions of tons of it were shipped to Grace manufacturing facilities to process for insulation. One of these plants was in Dearborn, making Zonolite insulation at a site on Henn Street.

The vermiculite from Libby is contaminated with asbestos, but nevertheless was used to make insulation at this facility for decades until it closed in 1990. The contaminated insulation was used in tens of thousands of structures in Michigan. The federal investigation into this potential plague has learned that eight additional W.R. Grace vermiculite-processing plants were located in River Rouge, Warren, Milan, Reed City, Elsie and Grand Rapids.
Asbestos Illnesses: Mesothelioma & Asbestosis

Prolonged asbestos exposure can result in a number of health problems including asbestosis and a lethal form of cancer known as mesothelioma. Inhaled asbestos fibers can scar the lungs and cause asbestosis, a condition that reduces lung capacity permanently. Mesothelioma cancer is also caused by asbestos fibers, which lodge in the lining of the lungs or abdominal cavity and eventually generate cancerous cells.

It can take up to twenty years or more after asbestos exposure for the symptoms of mesothelioma cancer to appear. The businesses listed below are sites known to have exposed employees to asbestos. If you ever worked in one of them, you should consult your doctor about potential symptoms and schedule regular checkups. If you have been diagnosed with mesothelioma or another asbestos-related disease you should talk to a Michigan mesothelioma lawyer about the compensation that may be owed to you by one or more asbestos companies and former employers.
Asbestos Jobsites in Michigan

When asbestos was officially acknowledged as a serious national health issue in the 1980s it had been in widespread use since the late nineteenth century. Nevertheless the data on health problems due to asbestos is somewhat sketchy up to the end of the twentieths century. One organization undertook a study of official death certificates on a nationwide basis to try and quantify asbestos-related deaths over the last two decades of the twentieth century.

The study shows that between 1979 and 2000 there were 329 deaths attributed to asbestosis in Michigan. Over that same period, malignant mesothelioma in Michigan caused somewhere between 823 and 1,377 deaths. There are more recent figures since the federal government began to track mesothelioma deaths in 1999. Their data shows that from 1999 through 2004 there were 558 mesothelioma deaths. Clearly the deaths from mesothelioma are still accelerating.
Mesothelioma Cancer Care in Michigan

Michigan has two federally recognized comprehensive cancer treatment and research centers.